Kampfreime

Uwe Wandrey’s pocket-sized edition of Kampfreime (Combat Rhymes), published in Hamburg in 1968, is prefaced with the description “handy, sharp-edged combat edition for the revolutionary resistance phase.” [1] The small book is bound in sharp metal covers that exceed the boundaries of its stapled sheets, effectively transforming the book into a weapon capable of inflicting wounds and property damage. While violence is implied in the book’s form, the “Notwehrtauglich” (“suitable for self-defense”) sticker on its inner cover and the rhymes lend a humorous tone to the call for battle. The slogans and rhymes include different categories, such as the press, general policy and politics, work-related issues, the military, and education. Examples include subversive and critical statements such as “Scheisst auf Deutsches Vaterland / Rekrutiert den Widerstand” (Shit on the German fatherland / Recruit for the resistance”), “Arbeiter bücken Sich / Ausbeuter schmücken sich” (“Workers bend over, The exploiters adorn themselves”), “Wir brauchen keine Soldaten / Wir brauchen Demokraten”, “We don’t need any soldiers / We need democrats”, “Die Warheit is Radikal” (“The truth is radical”), and “Lehre deine Kinder redlich: dies System ist Menschenschädlich“ (“Teach your children honestly: this system is damaging to people”). Rather than being a self-contained work, the author suggests that the Kampfreime should be disseminated on banners, walls, boards,  wooden fences, wall newspapers, posters, leaflets, wall newspapers, and blackboards, propagating such revolutionary statements across the urban spaces of West Germany. Wandrey’s unique contribution to the efforts of the West German student movement in 1968 signals the potential of re-conceptualizing the book format and of poetic and humorous uses of language in revolutionary discourse at a moment of heightened sociopolitical crisis.